Books Deserving the Fine Press Treatment

So, if a fine press offered to produce a book for you... what would you pick and why?
I think it might be interesting to make a list of books people feel deserve the fine press (aka letterpress) treatment! Now, I know it's easy to say "I want this and that book because I LOVE THEM!" ... but so what? I don't think "loving" a book is enough to warrant a fine press edition - I know, I'm mean that way :)

1)What is your top pic? Please limit this to your #1 book
2)Please justify why your book deserves the fine press treatment - is it something has truly influenced many people? Has it had the fine press treatment before? If so - why should there be another one? Are copies available on the second-hand market? If so, why bother with a new letterpress edition?

Ultimately, I'm kinda hoping by producing a list like this we might get the attention of some publishers and who knows, maybe one day our choices will get letterpressed...

Also, I'm really hoping that people choose books that have been "forgotten" by fine presses. As much as I love Moby Dick - and I would actually like to see another fine press edition by Thornwillow or a similar press - It won't be my #1 choice because there are other worthy editions that have been overlooked!

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison springs to mind. I believe it's never received fine press treatment. It's as relevant today as when it was written and is without a doubt influential. It's blend of realism and surrealism gives it tremendous illustration possibilities. I would love to see it issued in two volumes, and with commentary.

*Following this thread*

The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith translation. Pessoa was an amazing poet and writer who died in obscurity in Portugal and most of his oeuvre was discovered in a trunk after his death. He created numerous heteronyms for his work, many of which are as famous as he is in Portugal. Jose Saramago wrote a great book about one of those heteronyms, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. You cannot travel to Lisbon without absorbing Pessoa - he is to Lisbon what Joyce is to Dublin. Yet, because Portugal is a relatively small country this giant of Portuguese literature is (relatively) unknown outside of Portugal and I am not aware of anything close to fine press treatment for his work. The Book of Disquiet deserves to be that book. I would pony up for that one for sure.

I had to think about this one for a bit... and I decided if I could fine press any book, it would be

The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

by Galileo Galilei.

First, this book is incredibly important in numerous historical ways. You don't have to take my word for it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue_Concerning_the_Two_Chief_World_Systems

Second, there are NO fine press editions! The closest I know of is the Folio Society edition which is not fine press. There was also the Kronecker Wallis kickstarter - I don't know if those books got produced, but I was not a fan of the look.

The book is obviously in the public domain, so that is a bonus to publishers. Also, it is ideal for beautiful illustrations, and possibly even a new translation!

The Lord of the Rings has not yet had a true Fine Press edition - I would love to have one, especially if they take the trouble to get a worthy illustrator.

>6 ChrisG1:

This is an unrealistic suggestion. The only private press with the staff and resources to issue a work of literature this large in a letterpress edition is the Arion Press and it is highly unlikely LOTR is of publishing interest to them.

>7 dlphcoracl: I am an AP subscriber and I would probably drop my subscription if AP took on LOTR. Not a LOTR hater (although I am not a fan) but the odds of me unloading that tome on the secondary market for anything near what AP would charge me is hovering around 0%.

>5 astropi: astropi: “ There was also the Kronecker Wallis kickstarter - I don't know if those books got produced, but I was not a fan of the look.”

Galileo’s “Dialogue” is part of a 6-volume set of science classics by new, small, European publisher Kronecker-Wallis. All are to have new translations and quirky cover designs. They would not qualify as fine press by anyone’s definition (even mine), but I’m looking forward to them anyway. They have been delayed by the pandemic and are now scheduled for publication no later than November.

On a more contemporary note, a whole generation of would-be astronomers/physicists grew up devouring the great cosmological debate between George Gamow’s big-bang hypothesis as exemplified in his book “Creation of the Universe” and Fred Hoyle’s steady-state theory described in his “Nature of the Universe.” Both are short books and could be published together, supplemented perhaps with some colorful photos from the Hubble telescope. I care not whether they are printed letterpress, but both are worthy of preservation if only in a nice Folio Society or Easton Press edition.

>8 LBShoreBook: I think you underestimate the devotion and willingness to pay of Tolkien fans. Just look at what people pay on the secondary market for Centipede Press titles of popular fantasy or sci-fi titles, and that is for (generally) mid-level quality and characters such as Elric or Ender.

I agree that LotR does not fit Arion’s brand though.

Lyra’s would be a good fit, in many respects. One could float The Hobbit first, and that’s about the complexity of Stardust.

I suspect the real challenge for LotR is rights.

>10 abysswalker: I agree - LOTR has such a huge following, I'm certain demand would not be an issue, but obtaining the rights at a price that makes it feasible could be difficult.

Of course, one man's junk is another man's treasure. My inclination is to see old chronicles done up, such as Tysilio's Chronicle aka Chronicles of the Ancient Britons, but that is a bit esoteric for most.

For me it's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven. There's a dearth of fine press Westerns (I think Suntup's Blood Meridian misses the mark in a lot of ways), and Traven's is one of the best. A tale of greed, corruption and desperation south of the American border, laced throughout with stories of bandits, miners, and revolutionaries, it's every bit as rollicking a high adventure story as those of Kipling and Stevenson, and as hardboiled as the noir of James M. Cain. The mystery of Traven's identity could also make for some interesting supplementary material.

>10 abysswalker: I'm really hoping Lyra's next book turns out to be The Hobbit. They would be an excellent fit.

>13 SolerSystem: This sounds like a super intriguing read, I'm going to check it out.

>13 SolerSystem: I imagine the movie is much more popular than the book! Can't deny, it is a truly classic film :)

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

I’m not aware of any fine press editions of this important and wonderfully eccentric work currently available. The book offers plenty of scope for an illustrator’s imagination.

There was a 1925 2-volume limited edition by Nonesuch with whimsical drawings by E McKnight Kauffer. The 2-column layout, the omission of Burton’s marginal notes and the lack of English translations of many of the Latin quotations are not ideal.

Folio reprinted the 3-volume 1932 Everyman edition in 2005. This has modernised spelling (unfortunately) and includes translations and the notes, gathered in an appendix to each volume. No illustrations.

>16 bookist: Folio Society has an unfortunate habit of "modernizing" books. I purchased Journal of the Plague Year (Defoe) earlier this year and discovered, I think on these boards, that FS modernized some of the language without noting this change other than a reference to "brief emendations" on the copyright page. Travesty.

>13 SolerSystem: Nope, guaranteed it is not. Although I agree, it would be lovely to have Lyra do the Hobbit at some point, but I suspect that won't happen any time soon if ever.

>14 CenturyPress: Please do! That would be an instant purchase for me.

>15 astropi: Oh absolutely. It's my favorite John Huston film, which is what led to me reading it in the first place.

>18 astropi: That's disappointing! I'd love a fine edition of The Hobbit some day, much more than LOTR to be honest.

My choice at this moment if I had to pick one would be any of Nietzsche’s major works. Perhaps Human, All Too Human to go off the beaten path slightly.

Of this master prose stylist and probably top 10 most influential modern philosopher, I’m only aware of the LEC Zarathustra (which uses the unsatisfactory Thomas Common translation) and the Fanfrolico Antichrist, which is nice but idiosyncratic, and far from Nietzsche’s most influential or impressive work.

>22 abysswalker:

I think there are reasons why a lot of printers don't want to touch Nietzsche. I personally admire his style but think the man himself was insane long before he "went insane." There's also a lot of controversy about his influence on the Nazis. I don't know that that is necessarily fair, but on the level of ideas he was pretty reckless (and again...insane lol) so I can see how his ideas could be misappropriated for just about any viewpoint someone would want to use them for. Which I think the author deserves some blame for.

For myself, I will again offer 'Rising Up Rising Down' by William T. Vollmann (unabridged) for fine press treatment. Will never happen I'm sure...

>23 MobyRichard: Yes, at 3300+ pages, that seems unlikely. I'm assuming you own the McSweeny's edition?

>23 MobyRichard: Nietzsche’s sister is responsible for a lot (perhaps most) of the misinterpretation of his ideas (and also responsible for the wild mustache look, which, as I understand, he didn’t affect when in fuller control of his faculties).

Thankfully, thoughtful scholars such as Kaufmann and Hollingdale have contextualized most of his work, for people who actually read it, and not only are the vast majority of negative stereotypes applied to his thinking invalid, in many cases he championed exactly the opposite values. Nietzsche had nothing but scorn, for example, for antisemites and chauvinistic nationalism. His writing that touches on gender has aged least well, but even that is far from the cliche when you try to understand his meaning rather than anachronistically applying our current context to what he wrote (he wasn’t, generally speaking, writing about gender issues as a first order concern).

My take is that people who use his work to champion various unpleasant causes would find justification for whatever they want to believe elsewhere if it wasn’t available.

I’m unfamiliar with Vollmann and would be interested to hear more about why that is your pick (or a link to a previous thread if you discussed it elsewhere and I missed it).

>13 SolerSystem: A quirky (and more modern) Western could be The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. I am not a huge fan of Westerns but the conceit and dark humor in that one were fantastic.

I would also love to have a fine press LOTR edition. I have to disagree with >7 dlphcoracl: that AP is the only fine press. I think Thornwillow would also be able to do a project of this scale and would hopefully be considerably cheaper, but I agree that it's not going to happen. The number of pages is too high and the rights are probably also problematic to obtain as >10 abysswalker: points out.

My favourite would be Principia. I don't know of any fine press editions. I have the UC Press edition and know of the FS edition. If anyone knows a fine press edition let me know.

>27 c_schelle: I second Newton! Although I think The Dialogue would sell better, but who knows, and at any rate I'd eagerly purchase a fine press Principia. In terms of LOTR, I just can't help but feel the real issue here is the rights and perhaps because of it Arion and Thornwillow have no real motivation to try and produce it? Well, Thornwillow always answers questions, so it might be worth asking them.

>28 astropi: I explicitly recommended and asked Andrew Hoyem about LOTR and he made no bones about it NOT being the type of book they would ever print. Just not his/their thing. I did get Pedro Paramo printed though...so there's that.

I think the rights are a tangled web that no small press has the lawyers to negotiate. You can't even get some of the nicer special trade editions here in the States except by roundabout ways.

>29 jveezer: hasn't Hoyem left the reins? Perhaps the new person/people would be more amiable and less obnoxious? :)

>30 astropi: Yes, he's no longer actively running the press, but I haven't noticed much difference in the titles they are publishing. I suppose he could still be behind the scenes or on the board.

>29 jveezer: Of course it's not their thing. People would actually want to buy it.

>32 AMindForeverVoyaging: Ouch

I would also very much like a fine press edition of LOTR with original illustrations, preferably wood block or at least photopolymer plates (i.e. not lithographically produced).

As for my choice, I have not yet decided. I'm thinking along the lines of something in philosophy or history that has never been given the fine press treatment.

>16 bookist: While not a full reprint, there is the wonderfully quirky The Compleat Melancholick: Being a Sequence of ‘Found, Composite, and Composed’ Poems, based largely upon Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Lewis Turco. Designed and printed by Gerald Lange at the Bieler Press. Handset in Monotype Plantin and letterpress printed on Mohawk Letterpress Text paper. The gray-blue paste paper covers were produced by Gregor Campbell and quarter bound in boards at The Campbell-Logan Bindery. Issued in an edition of 150 numbered copies signed by the author. Illustrated with a hand-colored woodcut, Melancholy, from the Augsburg Calendar (ca 1480).

Gerald is now retired, but he was an excellent printer and teacher, and I was privileged to learn letterpress printing from him directly. Gerald's work at the Bieler Press is in many public collections.

http://bielerpressiii.blogspot.com/2006/01/compleat-melancholick-lewis-turco.htm...

>27 c_schelle:
I have the FS Principia, which is overall pretty nice. However, the illustrations are irrelevant, silly fluff — I’d rather they’d claimed it to be illustrated and been discovered to have flat-out lied. :-)

>13 SolerSystem:
Since Suntup’s “Blood Meridian” misses the mark, why not have someone else give it another try?

>34 ultrarightist: I already “spent” my one choice, but may I humbly suggest Tacitus for your hypothetical championing?

>38 abysswalker: Tacitus is a very serious contender.

>25 abysswalker:

Yeah I heard about his sister the raging antisemite. That does suck, but my opinion is more based on Nietzsche's writing itself. Thus Spake Zarathustra is just unreadable to me and personally I think he was already insane when he wrote it. His earlier works...brilliant style but he's so obsessed with trying to shock people that he often wrote things that may be "true" emotionally but may or may not (hard to tell) represent his intellectual views. So I don't think his sister is the only one who deserves blame if his writings were misinterpreted.

Vollmann is hard to explain, but Rising Up Rising Down is an attempt to derive a moral calculus for violence, based on an absurd number of close readings of history, philosophy, literature, etc. and also his own journalistic experience in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet war, Serbia, and elsewhere. His sources range from Tacitus to Bakunin to Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah to Japanese Manga/Hentai, just to give a sample.

I've never read the abridged version, but it cuts 7 volumes down to 1 volume so hard to believe it's really worth the reading.

>38 abysswalker:
>39 ultrarightist:

Tacitus would be my #2. Herodotos gets too much love. Livy gets too much antiquarian love. Tacitus gets no love, ancient or modern.

On a different note, I know we recently got a Poirot book from Thornwillow, but it looks like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is entering the public domain next year in the US and therefore could be viable for a fine press edition. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is Agatha Christie at her best, and is definitely a landmark book in the mystery genre as a whole, and in Christie's career as an author.
I have no idea if a fine press edition of this book exists already, but to my knowledge it doesn't.

>38 abysswalker: and >41 MobyRichard: A bookstore near me has a 7-volume leather-bound edition of Tacitus from the 1700s (printed letterpress, of course). I've been eyeing it for a while.

>43 ultrarightist:

Do you know who the publisher is? I was thinking that there appears to be no folio (paper size) antiquarian Tacitus and no illustrated Tacitus. All the editions I've seen are pretty plain, lacking even the usual baroque decorations.

>44 MobyRichard: No, I do not recall. The volumes are quarto sized.

I've fantasized about a fine press edition of the works of Joseph de Maistre, and an anthology of medieval philosophy. I own a fine press edition of Froissart's Chronicles, so that desire is fulfilled. I thought about Livy and Polybius. My final answer is a fine edition of Tacitus, opera omnia, with maps and woodblock illustrations.

Tacitus is a good choice.

How about Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

>48 Sport1963: You know, I think the perfect edition for that would NOT be a fine press book, but a signed Easton Press edition. I always wondered why that never happened, and I suspect it's because of Harper Lee - apparently she was eccentric and/or a recluse. Too bad, a lost opportunity. That said, considering the prominence of the book, I actually would rather see many other books getting the fine press treatment.

James Stephens - The Crock of Gold

>50 Crypto-Willobie:
Are you familiar with the LEC edition (that repetition always seems so clumsy to me but I can’t bring myself to write ”version”)? It’s never struck me as one of their finest, but it’ll be letterpress and richly illustrated.

>51 GusLogan: No, didn't realize. Thanks

The Surrounded by D'Arcy McNickles. Life on the Flathead Indian Reservation by a Native American. Powerful work published in 1936.

I'd like to have a fine press edition of the works of Josephus.

>53 Glacierman: Still mulling over the one book I would choose and have been thinking about a Native American author. So I was happy to learn about another native American writer and book I was unaware of. I'm going to track that The Surrounded down.

>55 jveezer: Just note that it doesn't have a happy ending.